People collect some darn strange things. When I was a lad it was all the rage to collect those hard plastic bread bag tags and adorn your bicycle’s brake cables with them. I also had an impressive range of conkers (my best was only a 46er). I did dally with philately for a time but soon found myself out of my depth with the mountains of stamps that were available. Well meaning relatives often bought me commemorative stamps and I daresay many will be buying the new royal wedding stamps. A fellow stamp collector kept pestering her parents for a (very elusive) non-cancelled Penny Black – ah the naiveté of youth.
A school friend had a particular hankering for Land Rovers and would often have photos of his favourite models, all the advertising leaflets and the promotional literature. He kept his assortment neatly displayed in a poly pocket ring binder and would bring it into school. Obsessed he was. He rides a bicycle now.
The joy of collecting usually starts in childhood with dolls, swappable gaming cards and little novelty teddy bears before morphing into a more serious habit of accruing antique furniture, special edition teddy bears and finely crafted metal miniatures. Sometimes though, amassing certain items goes beyond what is usually acceptable to polite society. Who am I to judge what is odd and crazy against what is perfectly reasonable? Here’s a few people I think fall into the joyfully crazy category; I’ll leave it up to you to see whether or not you agree!
Beer Can Collection
Greg Stinza has been collecting these for years. It’s not a particularly odd hobby to some, particularly as you have the pleasure of emptying the non-vintage cans first.
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Mr T Dolls
Do you ‘pity the fool’? This is a fine display of A-Team collectible figures.
Pikachu
Pokémon became a massive hit in the early 21st Century. Little yellow Pikachu became a regular sight on kids’ clothes and school kits.
Mickey Mouse
According to the Guinness Book of Records, Janet Esteves has enviable position of being the world’s biggest collector of Walt Disney’s most famous creation. Her home is almost a repository of Mickey Mouse memorabilia and features over 2,500 items.
Business Travel Stubs
Now this one is not overtly crazy, you may even say it was a fairly normal thing to do. This guy found himself doing a lot of foreign business travel and has kept all his stubs for the last five years! The eagle-eyed will appreciate the fact that he travelled ‘economy’.
Sometimes, just sometimes, the collector is more famous than his collection.
Weird Al Shoes
‘Weird’ Al Yankovic collects shoes, Vans shoes. Al has been collecting since the early 1980s and has around 100 pairs to date. Hmm I know women with more…
Video Games Collection
Video Games began as a trickle but rapidly came out in force in the 80s. With so many platforms and a burgeoning array of titles it was inevitable that, what started as trying to keep up-to-date became an obsession for some. One guy, who only wants to be known as ‘videogamecollector’ has this massive collection. For more pictures and information about this gent, click here.
Star Wars
Everyone knows about the figures and how the ones still on their backing cards are worth so much money to collectors. Well, Luis’s set of vintage carded Darth Vaders has left me drooling.
CPU Collection
Anyone who knows me knows that I love PCs. In fact I’ve been building the little beauties ever since I first dismantled my first (and only) shop-bought one many years ago. Hard drives are what excite me – don’t ask me why. I have no idea. But, for a Russian enthusiast whose love is CPUs he has taken his passion that one step further and amasses a dazzling array of processors. I’m confident he has the world’s largest collection, over 1,000 so far!
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And finally… where would we be without the most useful piece of standard cutlery, the humble spoon?
Airline Spoons
Most of us will have a drawer at home for these implements but, for Dieter Kapsch, an Austrian flight attendant they occupy countless boxes. Starting with pleasant holiday memories evoked when using his first airline spoon, Dieter was hooked and steadily amassed airline spoons as often as was possible. In the 13 years that followed he now owns a collection of 1,760 spoons from 447 airlines (some of which no longer exist). The question I am dying to ask is; does he ever play them?
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